1672 quotes by psychologists for you to enjoy

The irrationality of disgust suggests it is unreliable as a source of moral insight. There may be good arguments against gay marriage, partial-birth abortions and human cloning, but the fact that some people find such acts to be disgusting should carry no weight. Paul Bloom

Good Gay Marriage People Abortion Some People Argument Gay Marriage Carry Moral Find Insight Some Unreliable Fact Weight Source Cloning Irrationality May Human Disgust Disgusting Human Cloning Against Should Acts

Some of the natural world is appealing, some of it is terrifying, and some of it grosses us out. Modern people don't want to be dropped naked into a swamp. We want to tour Yosemite with our water bottles and G.P.S. devices. The natural world is a source of happiness and fulfillment, but only when prescribed in the right doses. Paul Bloom

Happiness Natural People World Water Naked Our Out Some Only Tour Bottles Dropped Devices Terrifying Source Yosemite Modern Want Swamp Doses Us Fulfillment Natural World Gross Appealing Prescribed Right

A sympathetic parent might see the spark of consciousness in a baby's large eyes and eagerly accept the popular claim that babies are wonderful learners, but it is hard to avoid the impression that they begin as ignorant as bread loaves. Paul Bloom

If our moral attitudes are entirely the result of nonrational factors, such as gut feelings and the absorption of cultural norms, they should either be stable or randomly drift over time, like skirt lengths or the widths of ties. They shouldn't show systematic change over human history. But they do. Paul Bloom

Time History Change Result Feelings Our Randomly Systematic Moral Gut Entirely Drift Factors Absorb Over Attitudes Like Ties Cultural Norms Stable Human Either Human History Should Show Skirt

More-radical scholars insist that an inherent clash exists between science and our long-held conceptions about consciousness and moral agency: if you accept that our brains are a myriad of smaller components, you must reject such notions as character, praise, blame, and free will. Paul Bloom

Character You Science Blame Will Free Insist Free Will Our Moral Must Clash Components About Myriad Scholars Smaller Between Accept Praise Exists Brains Agency Inherent Notions Consciousness Reject

Most of us know nothing about constitutional law, so it's hardly surprising that we take sides in the Obamacare debate the way we root for the Red Sox or the Yankees. Loyalty to the team is what matters. Paul Bloom

The emotions triggered by fiction are very real. When Charles Dickens wrote about the death of Little Nell in the 1840s, people wept - and I'm sure that the death of characters in J.K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter' series led to similar tears. Paul Bloom

Death People Emotions Tears Harry Harry Potter Characters Charles Charles Dickens About Similar Potter Wrote Sure Real Wept Led Dickens Very Fiction Little Series Rowling

We know that young babies, as they become capable of moving voluntarily, will share. They will share food, for instance, with their siblings and with kids that are around. They will sooth. If they see somebody else in pain, even the youngest of toddlers will try to reach out and pat the person. Paul Bloom

Food Try Will Somebody Become Young Pain Babies Else Kids Out See Instance Share Voluntarily Reach Know Around Pat Person Moving Capable Toddlers Youngest Even Sibling

I think what a lot of fiction is, is the imagining of the worst so as to prepare ourselves. Paul Bloom

Think Worst Ourselves Lot Fiction Prepare Imagining

Enjoying fiction requires a shift in selfhood. You give up your own identity and try on the identities of other people, adopting their perspectives so as to share their experiences. This allows us to enjoy fictional events that would shock and sadden us in real life. Paul Bloom

Life You People Events Try Real Life Own Enjoy Other Would Give Adopting Share Identities Identity Real Shift Up Shock Experiences Fiction Fictional Us Perspectives Requires Your Enjoying

We can imagine our bodies being destroyed, our brains ceasing to function, our bones turning to dust, but it is harder - some would say impossible - to imagine the end of our very existence. Paul Bloom

Impossible Dust Our Say Destroyed Would Some Existence Brains End Very Being Turning Bodies Function Harder Imagine Bones

If Inigo Montoya were around now, he wouldn't need to storm the castle to bring his father's murderer to justice; the police would do it for him, and fewer people would have to die. Paul Bloom

Justice People Police Father Would Castle He Him Around Were His Die Fewer Storm Now Bring Need

Part of the satisfaction of tattling surely comes from showing oneself to adults as a good moral agent, a responsible being who is sensitive to right and wrong. But I would bet that children would tattle even if they could do so only anonymously. They would do it just to have justice done. Paul Bloom

Good Justice Responsible Moral Would Bet Oneself Only Could Adult Part Wrong Anonymously Surely Done Just Being Children Sensitive Agent Who Showing Even Satisfaction Right Right And Wrong

If you look within the United States, religion seems to make you a better person. Yet atheist societies do very well - better, in many ways, than devout ones. Paul Bloom

Morality is often seen as an innovation, like agriculture and writing. From this perspective, babies are pint-sized psychopaths, self-interested beings who need to be taught moral notions such as the wrongness of harming another person. Paul Bloom

Innovation Writing Perspective Agriculture Seen Babies Harming Moral Morality Like Another Person Often Taught Notions Who Beings Need

I have my own difficulty with movies in which the suffering of the characters is too real, and many find it difficult to watch comedies that rely too heavily on embarrassment; the vicarious reaction to this is too unpleasant. Paul Bloom

Suffering Own Difficult Difficulty Too Embarrassment Characters Find Unpleasant My Own Rely Comedies Reaction Real Which Movies Many Watch

Any simple claim that you need religion to be good is flat wrong. Paul Bloom

Good Religion You Simple Claim Wrong Any Flat Need

The enjoyment we get from something is powerfully influenced by what we think that thing really is. This is true for intellectual pleasures, such as the appreciation of paintings and stories, and it is true as well for pleasures that seem simpler and more animalistic, such as the satisfaction of hunger and lust. Paul Bloom

Once we accept violence as an adaptation, it makes sense that its expression is calibrated to the environment. The same individual will behave differently if he comes of age in Detroit, Mich., versus Windsor, Ontario; in New York in the 1980s versus New York now; in a culture of honor versus a culture of dignity. Paul Bloom

Age Dignity Culture Honor Will Sense Once Windsor Individual Ontario Detroit He Environment New Accept Makes Versus Behave York Same New York Expression Now Differently Violence Adaptation

I don't doubt that the explanation for consciousness will arise from the mercilessly scientific account of psychology and neuroscience, but, still, isn't it neat that the universe is such that it gave rise to conscious beings like you and me? Paul Bloom

Me You Will Doubt Universe Gave Rise Neuroscience Arise Like Scientific Still Account Psychology Explanation Beings Conscious Neat Consciousness

Quotes by Psychologists